Familiarity with and affective responses to foods in 8–11-year-old children. The role of food neophobia and parental education

The present study investigated whether the familiarity with and affective responses to foods are predicted by the individual trait food neophobia and by parental education in school children. The cross-sectional data collection involved children (N = 208, 8- and 11-year-old) from Helsinki, and their parents. A questionnaire assessing children’s food neophobia with Food Neophobia Scale (FNS), and familiarity with and affective responses to 36 foods was completed by parents. Children with low FNS were familiar with a larger number of foods than those with high FNS. High FNS was associated with low pleasantness assessment of most food groups, including cheese, fruit/vegetables, fish, starch/cereals, and ethnic/exotic. Children of well educated parents had tasted a larger number of foods, thus displaying lower behavioral neophobia, and had lower FNS scores than children of less educated parents. Both low FNS scores and high parental education predicted the number of tasted foods. Parental education was not associated with pleasantness ratings (exception: cheese). To conclude, high food neophobia lowers the pleasantness ratings of foods, and parental education moderates behavioral neophobia.